Photographers often avoid the expense and risk associated with commercial film development by venturing into their own darkrooms in order to develop their exposed rolls of film. Proper film development in a private darkroom requires that the exposed film be subjected to a film development fluid for a specific period of time at a certain temperature. The time needed for development is inversely proportional to the temperature of the developing fluid, and the entire development process can involve multiple processing steps including agitation and changing of development fluids.
The photographer often does not have access to complex photographic developing equipment such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,364,655; 4,350,429; 4,332,456; 4,275,959; 4,453,817; and 4,600,287. Instead, the photographer must utilize a small portable film development tank and measure the temperature of the development solution and the time necessary for one or more development steps with a separate thermometer and clock. Therefore, film development often leads to inconsistent results stemming from inaccuracies in monitoring both the temperature of development fluids inside the tank and the time periods of film development steps. The film development system of the present invention eliminates the problems described above and provides the small-scale photographer with a simple yet accurate means of developing exposed film.